West Coast Live Steam BOOK Project

[Pontiacguy1]

Ken said that after they lost the house in Oakland, the one with the big basement, that the 1/2" scale track had to come out. His grandfather was already working in 3/4 and larger scales some by that time, and there was the track in the park that the GGLS were starting on, so that may partially explain what happened. They also had to vacate the house very quickly, and his Grandmother died in the middle of them moving. He said that most of the locomotives were sold off and that rolling stock was either sold or given to friends and family as mementos. He said that some of the track work and scenic decorations were simply taken to the dump. There is a guy in California that has the original yard section of the Shattock Basement layout, but I've not heard from him in quite a long time. One of the locomotives, a 1/2" scale SP 0-6-0 with slope-back tender, got stolen out of their basement, and was never seen again.

Ken did locate one of his Grandfather's 1/2" scale locomotives, a Coventry pacific, which he was able to purchase and bring home. I don't remember the number on the locomotive (maybe 2422), but he said that his Grandfather built two of them with this same number, and this one was the first one. He said that his Grandfather warned him that the boiler on this one was riveted and soft-solder caulked, and not truly silver-soldered, which is why he quit using it and wouldn't fire it up any more. Ken had it as a display in his home. This was the one I was asking about.

[dnevil]

Hello all,

Did this book ever get completed and if so who published it?

Yes and no. A "book" was never published, but the material that Ken had collected and written for the book is in the IBLS Website. He began sending me articles when we started up the website in 2013. It is spread across dozens of articles.

Regards,
Daris

[dnevil]

Here is a link that brings together the articles that Ken Shattock wrote for his book.

http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?tit ... Live_Steam

Regards,
Daris